Does Reality TV Turn Girls Mean?

Does watching reality TV turn viewers into mean girls? Or does it give girls more confidence?

A new study suggests both.

Earlier this week, the Girl Scout Research Institute released their report, Real To Me: Girls And Reality TV based on a national survey.

According to a Girl Scout fact sheet, girls who regularly watch reality TV, "accept and expect a higher level of drama, aggression, and bullying in their own lives, and measure their worth primarily by their physical appearance."

Some of the disturbing findings:

• Seventy-two percent spend a lot of time on their appearance (vs. 42% of non-viewers).
• Nearly 40% said a girl's value is determined by her looks (vs. 28% of non-viewers).
• A larger number said they prefer to be recognized for outer beauty than inner beauty (28% vs. 18% of non-viewers).

"Girls today are bombarded with media--reality TV and otherwise--that more frequently portrays girls and women in competition with one another rather than in support or collaboration," Andrea Bastiani Archibald, a developmental psychologist for Girl Scouts told the press. "This perpetuates a 'mean-girl' stereotype and normalizes this behavior among girls."

Still, despite these disconcerting responses, the survey also found positive impacts of regularly viewing reality TV programs.

Not only were girls who watched reality TV more confident than non-viewers, they were more likely to consider themselves mature, smart and funny.

Here are more positives for reality TV viewers:

• They were more likely to aspire to leadership roles. (46% vs. 27%)
• Sixty-eight percent said reality shows "make me think I can achieve anything in life."
• Nearly 50% said that reality TV helps them, "realize there are people out there like me."
• Sixty-two percent indicated that the shows  raised their awareness of social issues and causes.

While the negative findings are certainly cause for concern, they beg for further study before taken at face value.

After all, they are based on the responses of only 1,141 girls and we don't how these girls were selected (were they all Girl Scouts? respondents found at a mall? from a school?). Also, what was the diversity of the girls who took the survey?

Not knowing those things, we cannot determine if the sample group is "representative" of the American population as a whole.

We also don't know how many hours of a week the reality TV viewers watched or which shows they viewed. Are some shows more problematic than others? We don't know for sure.

Furthermore, this study reminds me of music-related studies that have purported to find a connection between listening to a genre of music and engaging in certain behaviors. (Rap and violence, Heavy Metal and drug use, etc.)

As in those instances, the Girl Scout study does not determine which actually came first--the value or the habit (listening to certain music or watching reality TV).

In other words, does watching reality TV predispose girls to hold these particular beliefs, or are girls who hold these world views more likely to watch reality TV?

To really validate these claims, follow-up studies need to be conducted on a much larger scale (with tens of thousands of surveys taken from girls of all socioeconomic, ethnic and geographical backgrounds).

Furthermore these studies need to evaluate subjects' beliefs before they begin watching reality shows and then after they have done so.

Until then it's good to remember that reality TV has both positive and negative messages. Other studies have demonstrated that it's not a bad idea to limit children's and teens' viewing of TV. And it is always good to talk to girls and boys about what they are watching, in order to uncover what messages they are taking from these shows.

What do you think? Should we be concerned about the impact reality TV has on our children? Are some shows worse than others? Are there reality TV shows you wouldn't want your teenage son or daughter to see?

Share your point of view in the comments.

Photo of Real Housewives of Atlanta girl fight © Bravo. Do scenes like this drive tweens to emulate mean girls?